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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Morris Kolodney

Chemical EngineerLos Alamos, NM

Trinity Site
EngineerManhattan Project VeteranTrinity Test Eyewitness
Morris Kolodney

Morris Kolodney was an American electrochemical engineer.

Kolodney worked on purifying plutonium for the atomic bombs at Los Alamos as a senior scientist. He was the first person in the world to hold metallic plutonium. 

After the war, he served as a professor of chemical engineering at CCNY for many years. He holds many patents including for electromanganese, now used in US dollar coins. For more on Kolodney, see Oh, what his hands have held.

Morris Kolodney’s Timeline
1911 Sep 24th Born.

19431946 Worked on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos as a senior scientist.

1945 Jul 16th Witnessed the Trinity test.

1973 Retired from CCNY after teaching for 37 years.

2009 Nov 29th Died in Sarasota, FL.

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